(a) Field
The invention relates to a liquid crystal display (“LCD”), and in detail, relates to an LCD including two display panels, a spacer supporting the two display panels, and a fixing protrusion fixing the spacer.
(b) Description of the Related Art
A liquid crystal display (“LCD”) is one of widely used flat panel displays. An LCD is a display device including two display panels provided with field generating electrodes, a liquid crystal layer disposed therebetween, and a substrate spacer uniformly supporting an interval between the two display panels. Liquid crystal molecules of a liquid crystal layer are rearranged by applying voltages to the field-generating electrodes, respectively, thereby transmittance of light passing through the liquid crystal layer is controlled by controlling the rearrangement of the liquid crystal molecules, and consequently an image is displayed.
Among the LCD s, an LCD in which two display panels are disposed and a thin film transistor (“TFT”) switching the voltage applied to the electrodes is formed is widely used. One display panel (hereinafter also referred to as a TFT array panel) of the two display panels includes a plurality of wires such as a gate line and a data line, a pixel electrode formed in a pixel defined on the display panel, and a TFT controlling a data signal transmitted to the pixel electrode, and the other display panel (hereinafter also referred to as a color filter array panel) includes a black matrix having an opening corresponding to the pixel.
A spacer maintaining an interval between the TFT array panel and the color filter array panel is inserted therebetween to obtain a space in which the liquid crystal layer is formed.
The substrate spacer is classified into bead spacers that are spherical and have an irregular pattern, and column spacers or rigid spacers having a constant pattern.
The column spacers are formed by coating a photosensitive film on an opposing display panel and performing an exposure and development process on the coated photosensitive film so that it has a desired pattern corresponding to portions through which light does not transmit within pixels, such as at a channel part, gate lines, and storage electrode lines.